19 Comments

I was shocked to discover just a single "Blindspot" for me - Safe (though to hear Robert Lewis tell it below, that may actually be a dodged bullet).

Greg Newman - 1 week ago

Three to see. Malcolm X, All About Your Mother and Metropolitan

Peter Blunden - 2 weeks ago

I've never even heard of SAFE.

Thomas Dargent - 2 weeks ago

Seen 81%. Planning to add a few to that this week.

Cory - 3 weeks ago

Surprised that I had seen them all, but 15-25 are prime movie-watching ages. My Own Private Idaho, JFK, Boogie Nights, All About My Mother, Hoop Dreams, and Dead Man are some faves. None likely have a chance, so I shall be rooting for Silence of the Lambs to win.

And no Titanic is nonsense.

Jackie F (from Toronto, ON) - 3 weeks ago

56 so better than I thought! Some good homework to do - movies I have been meaning to catch-up on for a long time: JFK, Before Sunrise, Close-Up, Dead Man (don't know how I missed that one), Hard-Boiled, Princess Mononoke, Short Cuts...

Also seconding for The Ice Storm which I didn't think of til someone mentioned it here.

I agree that The Celebration would have been an inspired choice... Maybe overlooked, but should have made it far if greatness matter.

Seen 60. It's ok, enough to be able to partake with joyness in most fights.

Matt Powers - 4 weeks ago

I was most struck by the fact that of the 46 movies on this list that I have seen...half or more of them were seen much later in life, often due to other, later movies by filmmakers or actors also attached to these movies. I was a teenager through the 90's and for a long period saw a movie almost every weekend like clockwork...I guess I was seeing different movies...

Dave from Ridgewood, NJ - 4 weeks ago

IMHO, you can't talk about 90's cinema without including "The Celebration" and/or "Breaking the Waves".

As a separate list, I'd say the 90's movies that most influenced the look of other films would be (off the top of my head):

All those films are on Filmspotting Madness except for "The Celebration". An oversight.

Nathan Backlund - 4 weeks ago

Only one I haven't seen is Toy Story 2. I know everybody has films they would have liked to see included. I just have to mention Hou Hsiao-Hsien because for me, and critics like Hoberman, Rosenbaum, and many others, he dominated this decade with four masterpieces, continuing a streak that ranks as one of the most amazing runs of any great director. Unfortunately "Puppetmaster" (1993), Good Men, Good Women (1995), Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996), and Flowers of Shanghai (1998), are hard to see and not available in good DVD editions. A tragedy that hopefully will be rectified one day.

Susan Wilhite - 4 weeks ago

Missing one of my all-time faves: The Madness of King George. Nigel Hawthorne Oscar nominated for leading actor. Helen Mirren, Rupert Evertte. What happens when it's apparent that a country's ruler is not right in the head? Is it more important to seem like one's self than to be one's self?

Robert Lewis - 4 weeks ago

I have seen all of the film in the 90’s Films March Madness, unfortunately. There are hours of my life I wish I could get back from watching some of the films on this list. The two worse ones are JFK and Safe.

JFK - At over 3 hours, this was a tough film to watch. I remember thinking how beneath this film was compared to the actors and actresses. So, it is no surprise that none of these fine actors were nominated from this film for an Oscar.

What really makes this film far beneath being worthy of a spot on this list is how he distorts the facts and even avoids facts that don’t support his purposes., the worse being linking Bobby Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassinations to President Kennedy’s death.

A better Oliver Stone film to put on this list would have been, Born of the 4th of July.

The next film that wasted my time was Safe. While Julianne Moore was fantastic in this film, her performance could not get rid of the stink. While Todd Haynes tries steers in a different direction of a standard melodrama, he veers into a dead-end alley. It seems he does learn from his mistakes and puts together a fine vehicle with Far from Heaven , with Julianne Moore giving this film enough fuel to truly earn its audience responses without overt manipulation.

Erik (Portland, OR) - 4 weeks ago

No The Ice Storm? FOR SHAME!

Adam, I know you've said you didn't see the magic in this movie, but I thought somebody behind the scenes would talk some sense and put it in the running. TEAM ADAM 4 Lyfe, but this is upsetting...

Dave M - 4 weeks ago

I've seen bits of many of the 28 films that I have not seen, but, I gotta say, there are simply some of these I don't remember even having been exposed to, except as words you guys have said over the years. Many I'm shameful for having never seen (Reservoir Dogs, Shawshank Redemption), but there are a few I'm proud to have never seen (I'm the last American to have never seen Titanic, and intend to go down with the ship having never seen it; I had a choice the weekend my wife saw it: Titanic or Jackie Brown. I chose Jackie Brown and I've been pleased with that choice ever since).

I'm going to interpret this poll as a measure of one's preparedness for the Madness, so i'm only considering movies i have rated to have been "seen". If i haven't rated it, i really can't be sure how much i enjoyed a film 20 years ago.

Born in 1970, i was in my 20's through the 1990's, and the 1990's were a great time for music ... so i was more likely to be found in the clubs than in the movie theatres. However, for a couple of years mid-decade, my girlfriend happened to be primarily someone else's girlfriend ... so we spent a lot of quality time together in the shadows of the cineplex. We saw an awful lot of movies in the theatre (and a lot of awful ones too!) ... but IMDb didn't come around until later. Hence, i've probably actually seen 36 (or possibly as many as 40), but i've only rated 17 so far. I can only vote (in good conscience) on one of the play-in matches! "Toy Story" is an 8, while "Toy Story 2" is only a 7 -- but i can't for the life of me remember why. I've seen each of the Three Colors films, but rated both "Blue" and "Red" 8-out-of-10, so i'll have to rewatch them to decide which i must deny to the future. (Was "White" released between them? I only gave it a 7. Am i gonna have to watch all three of them again?)

I'm particularly excited about the Madness this year -- it is my favourite spring film ritual now! (As i'm afraid of the socio-political madness that will be broadcast around the world on March 4th.)

PS I predict "Before Sunrise" over "Pulp Fiction" in the final. It's practically a foregone conclusion. But ... i rewatched "Clueless" last night, and i'd love to see it in the Final Four!

David (from Bonn, Germany) - 4 weeks ago

52 so far. Planning to move up into the 60-66 category before the end of month though.